Organic semiconductor fab opens in Austria

Nanoident Technologies claims that it has opened the world's first organic …

Nanoident Technologies, makers of "organic" semiconductors, unveiled its new Nanoident Organic Fab (OFAB) today. The company says that the new factory, located in Linz, Austria, is capable of producing 40,000 square meters of semiconductors a year. But these won't be just any semiconductors—the chips are made by spraying patterns of ink onto thin polymer layers, inkjet printer style. "Printed semiconductor-based optoelectronic devices created by the OFAB will usher in an era of new application types—traditionally not well-suited for silicon—which will improve healthcare, enhance personal and homeland security, as well as drive new industrial applications. These applications are just the beginning, as we look forward to driving continued advancements for printed devices that will enhance peoples' lives," said Nanoident CEO Klaus Schroeter in a statement.

These organic semiconductors degrade over time and cannot function at the same speeds of normal semiconductors. The printers used cannot etch patterns as small and intricate as the chips' silicon counterparts, as they are limited to roughly 10 microns compared to 65nm on a normal chip. Instead, their primary focus will be for less speed-dependent, single-use purposes. For example, a manufacturer could embed an organic semiconductor into a blood sample analyzer or water purity test, and those are the kinds of partnerships that Nanoident hopes to make with their lower-cost chips.

Wasiz Bokhari, CEO of Nanoident's sister company Bioident, said in an interview that his company plans to market Nanoident's chips with its own "lab-on-a-chip" device. Bioident's lab-on-a-chip can be used for a variety of different medical tests, and Bokhari told the EETimes that it can rival hundred-thousand-dollar lab systems with minimal cost: "it is low enough to make it disposable." Schroeter has his eye on a few other uses as well, such as fingerprint sensors for mobile phones, saying that the technology would enable those sensors to be directly integrated into a handset.

Nanoident CTO Franz Padinger said that the equipment as well as the chemicals used for the ink are standard and off-the-shelf, but with a few modifications. "It is very important to find the optimal solvent for each layer," Padinger explained to EETimes. The company also claims that both the ink itself and the printing process results in minimal byproducts that are environmentally-friendly, and unlike traditional chip manufacturing, the process in the OFAB can be completed within days or even hours, depending on the application.

Because of the semiconductors' unique manufacturing process, the new factory will have significantly less overhead costs than traditional chip factories. Nanoident's Austrian factory will only cost "a few million dollars" a year to run (compared to the typical neighborhood of $1 billion), according to Schroeter. The factory will also only have to employ around 40 people in the 800-square-meter fab (with 400-square-meter class 100 clean room), compared to the several thousand employees that might be required in a traditional chip factory. The company has been doing low-volume production of the organic chips since Q4 2006, and plans to ramp up to full production capacity by the end of 2007.